1. Field
The present disclosure relates to a communication system including a control-target appliance, a relay apparatus, a control apparatus, a server apparatus, a control method, and an information processing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is a technique of changing a transmission interval of a request signal for acquiring information representing a status of a home appliance or the like (a polling interval for a home appliance or the like) to check an operation status of the home appliance or the like.
As an example of such a technique, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-348319 discloses a control system including a terminal apparatus that communicates with a home appliance or facility appliance and that manages and controls the status of the appliance. The terminal apparatus includes a communication unit that communicates with a home appliance or facility appliance at a certain interval, an operation status management unit that acquires and manages status information, and a communication interval changing unit that changes, when receiving status change information from the home appliance or facility appliance, a communication interval for the foregoing appliance. The home appliance or facility appliance includes an operation status monitoring unit that monitors whether or not an operation status has changed, and an appliance communication unit that transmits status information representing a changed operation status. More specifically, in a case where the operation status of the home appliance or facility appliance has changed from a shutdown status to an operating status, the terminal apparatus causes the communication interval changing unit to shorten the interval of acquiring operation status information.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-65164 discloses, as a technique of changing the above-described transmission interval, a communication control processing apparatus including a polling processing unit that includes a polling information storage unit and a polling information setting processing unit that sets information stored in the polling information storage unit. The polling information setting processing unit sets information stored in the polling information storage unit in response to a request for setting polling information from an appliance connected to a network. Accordingly, the communication control processing apparatus changes an operation regarding polling. More specifically, the communication control processing apparatus changes a polling interval in a case where the number of appliances connected to the network increases by more than expected, in a case where there occurs more frequently than expected a state in which control in the main body of an appliance is performed, or in a case where a power-off period is very long.
The control system according to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-348319 has a configuration in which the terminal apparatus changes a communication interval (a transmission interval of a request signal or a polling interval) for a home appliance or the like after receiving, from the home appliance or the like, status change information indicating that the status of the home appliance or the like has changed due to power-on. In this way, the terminal apparatus according to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-348319 merely changes the transmission interval of a request signal in response to the receipt of status change information transmitted from a home appliance or the like.
Therefore, in the configuration of transmitting a control instruction (including an instruction to turn on the power) from a terminal apparatus to a home appliance or the like, the technique according to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-348319 does not enable the terminal apparatus to quickly receive information representing a change in the status of the home appliance or the like caused by the control instruction. More specifically, in the configuration according to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-348319, the transmission interval of a request signal is not changed until status change information indicating that the power has been turned on is received. Thus, the terminal apparatus is not able to quickly receive the status change information indicating that the power has been turned on.
Also in the technique according to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-65164, as in the technique according to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-348319, the communication processing control apparatus is not able to quickly receive information representing a change in the status of the home appliance or the like caused by the control instruction.